Rigdon Marine Corporation has taken delivery of the FIRST AND TEN, the company's first of ten diesel electric "Rigdon 4000" Class platform support vessels (PSV).

The FIRST AND TEN immediately assumed a term contract with a major international oil company operating in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico, according to Billy Guice, Vice President --Marketing, Rigdon Marine Corporation

Built at the Lockport, La., yard of Bollinger Shipyards The FIRST AND TEN is a GPA 654 design PSV with diesel electric propulsion and American Bureau of Shipping (ABS) classed Dynamic Positioning-2 (DP-2).

It is designed to maintain a speed of 12 knots at loadline (fully loaded) condition, up to 30 percent faster than most existing vessels of equal size.

The Rigdon 4000 PSVs can transport up to 4,000 barrels of liquid mud in an independent and fully segregated, self cleaning oval tank system and have the ability to deliver 100% of their mud cargo to an offshore rig while greatly reducing the client's expense of tank cleaning.

The FIRST AND TEN features features a total installed power of 2,905 kW (3,894 hp) two Azimuthing Z-Drives and one fixed L-Drive aft and two large tunnel thrusters forward.

The FIRST AND TEN and its sister PSVs will be capable of serving a wide array of applications in all water depths.